Batman's Rich Heart
by Windrises
Summary: Carmine Falcone is planning on scamming away the homes of Gotham's lower and middle class citizens. Batman, along with Catwoman's help, tries to save all of the city's citizens.


Note: Batman is owned by DC Comics and was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane.

Bruce Wayne was the richest person in Gotham. Because of that, he felt the need to help the city's poor people. Carmine Falcone, Gotham's top crime boss, was planning on removing the homes of Gotham's lower and middle class citizens removed, so he could put up a series of mansions. He was doing that, so each of his family members could have the nicest home possible. However, he was hardly noble and Bruce was not okay with it.

Bruce was in his mansion, while thinking about a solution to the problem. Alfred Pennyworth walked up to him and asked, "What are you going to do, sir?"

Bruce answered, "I'm going to make sure Mr. Falcone doesn't take away a single person's home."

Alfred said, "Despite what a powerful business Mr. Falcone is, I don't see how he could get permission for this scheme."

Bruce replied, "I thought the same thing, but I read an article in the newspaper. Mr. Falcone promises to send Gotham's lower and middle class citizens to a nicer home. That sounds nice, but I know that's not his actual plan. A certain dark knight is going to pay him a visit."

That night, Batman drove to Mr. Falcone's business building. He parked the Batmobile a few blocks away from the building, so he could sneak in. Batman was thankful that the hallways were darkly lit, because it gave him a chance to sneak in the shadows. One of Carmine's bodyguards thought he saw a cape, but he quickly thought he was imagining things and forgot about it.

Batman heard the sound of a window opening. He was afraid that someone else was breaking. He snuck in the shadows, while walking closer to the window. Suddenly, Batman got punched to the ground. He grabbed a flashlight, out of his utility belt, and shined a light on the person who punched him: Catwoman. Batman whispered, "Why are you here?"

Catwoman had a sly smile on her face, while whispering, "Since Carmine's giving his family a nice mansion, doesn't the daughter he always ignored deserve the best mansion of them all?"

Batman whispered back, "There's a good chance you're one of his kids, but there's no confirmation of that."

Catwoman replied, "That monster takes away peoples' lives and wealth and gets away with it."

Batman said, "That's why I'm here. I need to protect the less fortunate and if you care about those people, you'll stay out of the way."

Catwoman replied, "I'll stay away ... for now." She snuck out.

Batman snuck up to Carmine's main office, where Carmine was having a meeting with his daughter, Sofia. He listened to their conversation.

Carmine started sipping on a glass of fancy cider, while saying, "So, you've come to congratulate your old man on his brilliant and sentimental plan?"

Sofia replied, "You could say that, but I do have a concern."

Carmine gently said, "I always get the best for my kids, so I'll take care of any concerns you have."

Sofia asked, "Where will Gotham's lower and middle class citizens be sent to?"

Carmine said, "A nice, new home. Well, that's the impression I've been giving them. After I convince those saps to agree to leave their homes behind, I'll have them sent to a very special place. They think I'll be sending them to the nicest home they've ever seen, but I'm secretly sending them to Arkham Asylum." Batman clenched his fist.

Sofia had a confused look on her face, while asking, "Arkham Asylum? How could you send them there?"

Carmine said, "If they're gullible enough to fall for my false promise of a new home, they deserve to be sent there. In order to make room for them, we'll have to release some of Arkham's inmates. It'll keep Batman busy."

Sofia asked, "What if the lower class citizens try to sue you?"

Carmine had a smug smile on his face, while saying, "I'm one of the richest men in Gotham. If they had the money to sue me, they wouldn't be lower class citizens."

Batman angrily burst into the room. Sofia pointed to Batman and asked, "What the heck is that thing?"

Batman sternly said, "I'm the one who's going to put Daddy Falcone under bars."

Carmine signaled to Sofia, to leave the room. After she left, he replied, "Yeah right. I'm an innocent businessman."

Batman responded, "You're planning on sending people to that nightmarish asylum."

Carmine casually said, "You do the same thing, so don't play the hypocrite card."

Batman grabbed Carmine and replied, "You're costing the safety and homes of thousands of well meaning, but struggling citizens, just so you can give your family and your ego the cheap thrills of a wealthy life."

Carmine straightened his tie, while responding, "I'm focusing on benefitting my families' lives, which is a very respectable goal."

Batman sternly replied, "But you'd be negatively affecting tons of families."

Carmine responded, "Those lower and middle class citizens are people I never met. Why should I care about them? You don't know them either. You work so hard to protect people you've never met before and because of that, you'll never get any kind of reward."

Batman said, "Knowing the citizens are safe is the best reward. Although I may never see the people I save, after I finish saving them from the bad guys, knowing I've benefitted their lives is an internal reward."

Carmine replied, "So, you seek overdramatic feelings of sentimentality, rather than power or money? Pathetic, truly pathetic."

Batman asked, "You know who the pathetic one is? The man who plans on endangering thousands of people, so he and his family can have big mansions that symbolize their oversized egos."

Carmine angrily replied, "You're crossing a line."

Batman opened a window and said, "You have a rich stack of cash, but your heart is poorer than you can ever imagine. Call off this plan or you'll be in Arkham Asylum." Batman snuck out the window.

A week later, Bruce started up a plan to antagonize against Carmine's scheme: He was planning on offering a large amount of money, to each and every lower and middle class citizen, who turned down Carmine's offer.

Carmine heard about this and was ticked off. While in his office, Carmine faced a team of goons and said, "Bruce is bribing these poor citizens into rejecting my offer. Because of that, my family and I won't have the space to put up the new mansions. Pay a visit to Bruce's house and get him to call off his deal."

An hour later, the goons went to Wayne Manor. They knocked on the door. Alfred opened the door and the goons started punching him. Bruce heard the punches, so he ran up to the goons and angrily asked, "Who are you and what are you up to?"

One of the goons said, "Call off your plan, about paying off the poor people."

Bruce stubbornly replied, "I'm not going to do that."

The goon pointed a gun at Alfred and said, "If you don't agree, you're going to lose your butler."

Bruce was horrified at the thought of Alfred suffering the fate his parents dealt with, so he reluctantly said, "Okay, I'll call off the deal."

The goon coldly replied, "Just hearing you say that isn't enough." He pulled out a paper and said, "Sign this document." Bruce gritted his teeth and signed the document. The goons walked out.

Bruce walked up to Alfred and gently asked, "Are you okay?"

Alfred said, "Yes, I appreciate you saving me, but saving the lower class citizens is more important."

Bruce sternly replied, "Don't worry. When Bruce fails to be Gotham's hero, Batman steps in."

A short time later, Batman paid a visit to Catwoman's house. Catwoman was surprised to see Batman in her living room. She folded her arms and asked, "How did you get in?"

Batman said, "You left the windows open, a very dangerous thing to do."

Catwoman replied, "I'm flattered you visited, but I'm doubting it's for social reasons."

Batman responded, "It never is. My good friend, Bruce Wayne, tried to stop Carmine's scheme, but failed. I need to be the one to stop him. How would you like to play a role in it?"

Catwoman said, "Sounds purrfect."

Batman sighed and replied, "I try to obey the laws, but this time the laws will have to be bended."

Catwoman smiled and responded, "You're making this night sound better and better. What are we going to do?"

Batman said, "We're going to break into the Falcone building, kidnap Mr. Falcone, and give him a trial of our win." Catwoman smiled with excitement.

A half hour, the Falcone building's guards were surprised to see Catwoman step out of the shadows. She said, "Greetings gentlemen. Who wants to get clawed?"

One of the guards replied, "We're going to get rid of you."

Catwoman confidently responded, "Yeah right. You fools are going down." She started beating up the guards. They tried to stop her, but there was no way they could stop her.

Catwoman's fight with the guards gave Batman a chance to sneak into Carmine's office. Carmine was starting to pack up and was planning on heading home, but Batman burst in. Carmine grumpily asked, "Why the heck did you return?"

Batman grabbed Carmine and said, "I'm taking you with me."

Carmine replied, "What a stupid thing to do. I'll have you sued and locked up." Batman threw Carmine across the room and punched him, until he passed out.

Meanwhile, Catwoman had beaten up all of the guards. She looked at the pile of passed out guards and said, "Never send a human man to do a Catwoman's job. Meow."

When Carmine woke up, he was in a private courtroom. He looked around and saw Batman, Catwoman, Two-Face, and Commissioner Gordon. Batman walked up to the scummy crime boss and said, "Welcome to your trial."

Carmine looked around and replied, "This is a phony trial. There isn't a jury."

Commissioner Gordon approached the Judge stand and said, "Carmine Falcone, you're a special type of criminal, so you've been given a special trial."

Batman said, "You can call this an unfair trial, but your actions are more than unfair. You're being put on trial for attempting to have thousands of innocent people to sent to Arkham Asylum. Catwoman is my lawyer and Two-Face isn't yours."

Two-Face looked at Carmine and said, "You're the last person I wanted to defend. However, I had to flip my coin to decide and it landed in your favor."

Commissioner Gordon looked at Batman and Catwoman and said, "This trial has begun. You may make your case."

Catwoman replied, "Your honor, Carmine Falcone has been corrupting Gotham, for years. He's done a countless amount of illegal business deals and now he's trying to scam people out of their homes, just so he can put up some fancy mansions."

Carmine angrily responded, "Objection."

Commissioner Gordon sighed and asked, "What do you want?"

Carmine nudged Two-Face and said, "Start defending that."

Two-Face got out his coin and replied, "I have to flip the coin, to decide if you're worth defending."

Carmine responded, "But you agreed to be my lawyer."

Two-Face replied, "I agreed to be your lawyer, but I didn't agree to defend you. Let's find out what your fate is." He flipped the coin. It landed on the coin's scratched up side, so he said, "Technically, I'm still your lawyer, but I'm not going to defend you. You're basically on your own." Batman and Catwoman had a smug smile on their faces.

Carmine stood up and responded, "I'll make my own case. Your honor, I'm planning on sending the lower and middle class citizens to a nice place, so I can give my family the best homes possible."

Batman replied, "Objection. You want to force poor people into an asylum, so you can get rid of their homes, and put up some fancy dancy mansions. Do you think expensive homes, cars, and other material objects are what make people feel rich? I've seen people, from varying degrees of financial success. However, when I look at people, their heart is the thing I pay attention to, not their wallet. You're a manipulative, lying scumbag who would trade in the poor people of the city for a bigger wallet."

Carmine snobbishly responded, "Batman's using cheap sentimentality to make me look bad."

Batman replied, "Sentimentality is a gift that's worth more than any of your material items. You do love your family, but you use that as an excuse to make your actions justifiable. There are plenty of loving fathers, who care about more than just their own family. For example, there was Thomas Wayne, the man who saved your life, when you were sick. Instead of respecting his memory, you tried to stop his son from helping Gotham's less fortunate people."

Carmine responded, "Listen, I miss Thomas Wayne, but that doesn't give his son an excuse to interfere with my business."

Catwoman walked up to Carmine and said, "You claim to respect your family, yet you left me behind. There's no evidence that I'm your daughter, but it's known I'm related to you, in some way."

Carmine replied, "You're a cat burglar, so you don't deserve a single piece of land, from me."

Batman whispered something to Catwoman. Catwoman nodded, with a big grin on her face. Catwoman faced Commissioner Gordon and said, "My client wants Carmine to be locked up without bail, so that none of his family members and henchmen can bail him out."

Commissioner Gordon looked at Two-Face and asked, "Do you have any objections?"

Two-Face flipped his coin. It landed on the scarred side, so he said, "I don't have any objections. Frankly, I'm thrilled to see Carmine be defeated. Plus, my prison sentence got reduced, by two months, for doing this trial thing."

Commissioner Gordon put a pair of handcuffs on Carmine. Carmine shook his cuffed fists at the costumed characters, before being sent away.

Batman looked at Commissioner Gordon and said, "I convinced Bruce Wayne to give out checks to each and every struggling citizen of the city. Nobody in Gotham is going to their home."

Commissioner Gordon replied, "Bruce Wayne is almost as good of a hero, as you."

Batman lightly smiled at Catwoman and said, "Thank you for your help."

Catwoman replied, "You're welcome. I was kind of hoping that Carmine would start treating me like a part of the family. That overly ambitious dream failed and because of that, I'm truly alone."

Batman gently responded, "You're not alone. You were a big help to me and if you stay away from jewel robberies, I'd be honored to have you by my side." He stuck his hand out.

Catwoman shook Batman's hand and replied, "I couldn't think of anything more purrfect." She surprised Batman, by giving him a kiss.

After a brief moment of being distracted, Batman looked around and saw that Catwoman had snuck away. He smiled, knowing that he'd see her again. However, the thing that made him the most happy, was knowing that Gotham's citizens, of all kinds of wealth, were safe.


End file.
